やっと冬休み！

冬休みが来た！うれしいです！

まず、一つのノート：「星の王子さま」という本を買って、読み始めた！かわいい！

今日はすごく忙しかった。授業はつまらなかった、しかも３時で終わったから銀行で旅行者用小切手をドルに交換することができなかった。だから、明日しなきゃいけない。成田空港とかベトナムでできるかもしれないけど心配がいっぱいあって、すぐにしたい。

とにかく、その後、池袋でリエちゃんと真紀先生に会った。リエちゃんは本当に本当にいい人だと思ってきた。いろいろな話題を話し合ったり、マックを食べたり、クリスマスプレゼントも交換したりしました！私はジェリーベリーというお菓子を真紀先生に。そして、ココアミックスをリエちゃんに。真紀先生はロッテのチョコレートをくれた。リエちゃんはクリスマス紙で包んだまでかわいい本をくれたんだよ！マックスルケード作家の「大切なきみ」という本です。本の中にクリスマスカードも書いて入れた。それは初めての日本のプレゼントです。カードを読んで、なんか感動した。世の中にこんなにいい人がまだいるのはすばらしいと思うの。

リエちゃんと真紀先生との遊びの後、亀戸にのぶことWendyに会いに行った。Wendyは日本の彼氏と会いたがっているからのぶこの友達は鍋パーティを準備してあげました。のぶこは私と参加したがって、今日にしました。（旅愛好会のクリパに行かなかったのは本当に残念ながら！）のぶこの友達の友達のアパートでやったからちょっと緊張したけどみんなと一緒に食べたり、テレビを見たり、話したりして良かった。日本では人は知らない人にアパートのパーティまで誘うのが珍しいです。会った男の人は思ったより年取ったんだけど面白かった。最年少の私は２０歳で、最年長は２８歳だった。最年長はなんか、テビンという歌手みたいな様子をしました。（とくにかっこいいわけではないけど見るのは面白かった。w）前の遊びで疲れてしまったから印象がいいか悪いかわからないのに人の家（ってか、アパート）に誘うのは初めてだった。あぁ、今すごく疲れている。ー＿ー

それはちょっと関係ないけど...
スーパーライブ２００７を見て、「KAT-TUNがかっこいい？」とか「気持ち悪い！」とか話し合った。超面白かった。でも、NewSが出てきた時、ちょっとびっくりした。ヤマピはやっぱりかっこいいと思ってきちゃった。ずっと前からかっこいいかな？それとも、私の好きなタイプが変わったかな？まぁ、いいか...

(StephanieとChloeへのノート：CMが出る時、ビッグバンのCMが出てきた！びっくりしたのに笑っちゃいました。日本でCMさえ出ているんだよね。頑張ってるみたいだよね。XD)

で...明日ベトナムの準備をしなきゃ〜！荷物まだつめなかった！ワクワクしてるんだよ！みんなさん、メリークリスマスと良いお年を！


Translation...

It's winter vacation! I'm so happy!

First, one note: I bought "Le Petit Prince" and started reading it. It's cute!

Today was really busy. Classes were boring, and on top of that since classes ended at 3pm I wasn't able to exchange my traveler's checks for dollars. So I have to do it tomorrow. I can probably do it at Narita Airport or Vietnam, but since I'm all worried I want to do it quickly.

Anyway, after that I met Rie and Maki in Ikebukuro. I think Rie is a really, really good person. We talked about a bunch of things, ate McDonald's, and exchanged Christmas presents! I gave Maki Jelly Bellies. Maki gave me some Lotte chocolate. Rie gave me a book that was really cute all wrapped up in wrapping paper. It's a book called 'You Are Special' by Max Lucado. She also wrote me a Chrismas card and stuck it inside. Those were my first Chrismas presents in Japan. I was sort of moved when I was reading the card. Like it's kind of amazing that this kind of good person still exists in the world.

After meeting with Rie and Maki, I went to Kameido to meet with Nobuko and Wendy. Wendy really wants to meet a Japanese boyfriend, so Nobuko's friend prepared a nabe party. Nobuko wanted me to come, so they made it today. (But it's too bad I couldn't go to the Travel Club Christmas party.) I was kinda nervous cuz it was at Nobuko's friend's friend's apartment, but it was good to eat, watch tv, and talk to everyone. Inviting people you don't know to a party at your apartment is rare in Japan. The guys we met were older than I thought, but it was interesting. I was the youngest at 20 and the oldest was 28. The oldest guy had the appearance of this one singer called Taebin. (He wasn't especially good looking, but it was interesting to look at him. haha.) Since I was tired from hanging out before I don't know if I had a good or bad but it was the first time I was invited to someone's home (or...apartment). Ah, I'm so tired. -_-

This doesn't really have anything to do with before, but...
We watched Super Live 2007 and talked about things like "Is KAT-TUN good looking?" and "That looks gross!" It was interesting, but when NewS came out I was kinda surprised. I think Yamapi is good looking after all. Has he always been good looking? Or is it that my taste is changing? I guess it doesn't matter...

(Note to Stephanie and Chloe: When commercials were on, Big Bang came on! I was surprised but then started laughing. Even commercials are coming out in Japan. It seems like they're trying really hard. XD)

So...Tomorrow I have to prepare for Vietnam~! I still haven't packed! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!

Mobile: 御茶ノ水の橋

Ochanomizu Bridge

写真はそんなにキレイじゃないけど実際に見たらすごい！
This picture isn't that pretty, but the real thing is great!

Weekend!

This was such a good weekend. Since I finished my last midterm and presentation I didn't have to do anything over the weekend, not even study for Japanese. So I ended up having fun. ^^

On Saturday, I met Yuhki and his friend, Shinji in Shibuya for some drinks. Yuhki came out to Tokyo because of Shinji's ゼミ, which is like a research thing. We went to the HUB, which is an English style pub. There's always a lot of foreigners there. Calpis Surfer and Sex on the Beach were really good. Yuhki and Shinji decided to order this drink that had the most number of hearts next to it...which was a very bad idea. It turns out, it was the strongest drink they had, the hearts weren't for popularity. It had an absinthe base and it was disgusting!!! I don't know how they finished it. It's gross just thinking about it. Then I got a motivational speech from Yuhki (with Shinji's interjections here and there) about how I should try to speak more Japanese, to not take the easy way out and use English, and how it's okay to make mistakes. It was actually kind of amazing Yuhki could still say such inspirational stuff after drinking. Haha. He's a good friend so I was glad we could hang out. I felt like garbage going home on the subway, but I made it back safely and didn't feel bad in the morning.


That was a relief because I went to Yohan Waseda Christ Church on Friday morning. Min Jeong met me at the station and I met up with Rie at the church. Everyone there was really nice. It was a little long and hard to understand, but the church is actually pretty music oriented, so there's a lot of music and singing. Afterwards, I was given some cds (gospel and a recording of some of the Christmas Concert) and a copy of the New Testament in Japanese. XD We ate lunch together and I met a few more people. Since Rie and Min Jeong were doing preparation for the other service, Mi Yeon walked me back to the station. Overall, it was a fun experience. I'll probably go with them on their one day trip to onsen on the 3rd. ^^

Nobuko ended up skipping her training for Starbucks and met me in Ikebukuro along with her friend. We went to eat and drink at a little restaurant. I hadn't seen Nobuko in a while, so it was nice to see her. And of course, we went to karaoke after that. Her friend left early, but we stayed there for about 3 hours total. It turns out the only songs we can sing together are old Hamasaki Ayumi songs because we have different tastes in music. XD Anyway...it was great fun. =D

The only downer was that I slept in too long and woke up at 8am, which means I couldn't make it to my Japanese class without being ridiculously late. So I skipped that and showed up for Korean Art and Japanese Literature. We didn't actually have lecture for Korean Art. We all went up to our professor's office and she threw a little mochi party with different kinds of Korean sweets. Korean mochi is really good. ^^ It was interesting, since our class is so small. Most people showed up so we just ate and talked and stuff. Very interesting. Only a few more days to pull through...

6 days until Vietnam!

Christmas Concert

Last Sunday, I went to a Christmas Concert in Shinokubo with a girl I met at school. It was a little strange that she randomly invited me, but I figured it was worth it just for fun. When we got to there, I met a couple of other people. I've never been to a Christian church or anything, so it was an interesting experience for me. It was a really interesting mix of people. It was mostly Japanese and Korean people, but everyone spoke Japanese. Some gospel singers, No Mu Han, Song Ok Nam Gung, Aram, and Naeri performed, which was a big deal for a bunch of people there since they came from Korea. (But not for me since I didn't really know who they are.)

Apparently the Japanese way of saying 'Jesus' is 'イエス' which roughly sounds like 'yes', and made me confused at first. Then after I actually listened to the rest of the words I thought, "Ohhh, Jesus." Hahaha. They sang Christmas carols, 'Fight', 'Love', 'Amazing Grace', 'イエス', and 'Holy Night', but my favorite by far was 'You Raise Me Up'. No Mu Han and Aram sang it together (they're father and son) so it was really cute. XD Singing was done in Japanese, English, and Korean, which was kind of funny, but cool because everyone sang in all 3 languages, even the little kids.

Afterwards, I met a few more girls. I was surprised that I didn't meet any Japanese people there since most of it was held in Japanese. Most of the girls there that were my age were Korean, but they have amazing Japanese. o_O Anyway, I'll probably go on Sundays (I know...weiiirrrddd...don't worry, I'm not converting.) to hang out with them. One girl used to be Buddhist and ended up converting and all of that so she understands how weird it feels, but since I'm only here for a year and they don't care if I only go for fun it should be interesting. We'll see how it goes...

Besides that, I have a midterm and presentation this week. As long as I can make it through those, I'll be home free. Vietnam in 11 days!!! I'm so excited!

しゃぶしゃぶ & Pure Suite

This past week, I had a crazy craving for shabu shabu, but I couldn't go out to eat any, so I decided to try and make it. It's a lot harder than it seems to make it taste right. Mine definitely didn't taste as good as the real thing, but hey, I tried. I didn't have the right kind of pot and I think I used the wrong kind of stock for the soupy part, but I ended up full and happy so it's okay.

Before:

After:


On Friday, I met Nobuko in Shibuya to look around at shops and things. I ended up finding the cd I've been looking at online for a while now. It's Francfranc presents Pure Suite Love Song House Covers. (I know, a mouthful.) It's a compilation of love songs remade by different electronica artists. Daishi Dance (who did FreeTEMPO's "HARMONY (DAISHI DANCE REMIX)"), Clazziquai Project (Past albums: Instant Pig, Love Child of the Century), GTS ("ABSOLUTE" featuring Ryohei) and ROMANTIC COUCH (mastermind behind Humming Urban Stereo and Instant Romantic Floor) are alll on it in addition to a few new artists I've never heard of. Overall, a good cd. And the packaging is quite impressive. I'll end up blogging this on my music blog later, though it's been a bit overshadowed by ETERNAL MORNING at the moment. =) It'll be nice to have some unconventional love songs to listen to around Christmas. (For some reason all I've been hearing in stores is that one Christmas song that goes, "Last Christmas I gave you my heart, but the very same day you gave it away...")


I'm getting really sick of school and I'm impatient to finally go on break. I hope you're all doing well. It's getting cold, so don't get sick!

John Lennon Museum

Today is Xavier Day, and Sophia, being a Jesuit university, gave us the day off (whoo!), but I woke up really late, making me two hours late to meet So-ky in Akihabara to go to the John Lennon Museum in Saitama. I felt so horrible. He spent two hours waiting around Akiba for me to show up. I'm lucky he's such a nice person.

I must say, I'm not a big John Lennon fan, though I do like the Beatles and all that, but the museum was very well done. When we got to the entrance, one of the people working there was explaining a special thing that just started today. They put a tree in the entrance for people to tie their wishes to. Then those wishes are going to be sent to the 'Imagine Peace Tower' being built in Iceland. (Random right?) Apparently, Yoko Ono was at the museum. I didn't get a good look at her or or anything, but that's why it was a big deal. She's doing the 'Dream Power' concert that's going to be on the 8th, so that's why I'm guessing she visited today.


The museum itself was very well done. It was split up nicely and each section had its own feel. I especially liked the end. The date of John Lennon's death was on a big white wall and that led into the 'Message Room' that was a white exhibit room that had a big wall that had his quotes and lyrics. It looked really cool, but we weren't able to take any pictures inside. At the end, there's a lounge that you can go into to look at books, watch dvds, and listen to music Lennon made, which is actually a pretty cool idea. We closed out the visit by adding our wishes to the tree downstairs. Can't say it's a must-see exhibit, but if you like John Lennon or have the time and want to go to Saitama it's really interesting and very well presented.

I've been on a museum fritz recently. I don't think it'll last much longer since there's only that other art exhibit I want to go to, but wow. So many museums!

Space For Your Future!

Wow, Space for Your Future was amazing. It's a temporary exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (MOT) that's going on right now. I couldn't take any pictures, so I actually bought a book about the exhibit, because wow...I really wish you all could see it. Amaaazing. I originally wanted to go to see Ninagawa Mika's section of the exhibit. (She's a photographer whose work I really admire.) But it turns out that her section of the exhibit wasn't even the best part.

I started out by sitting in these bubbly chairs that appeared white, but lit up a neon color once I sat down. Then there was a piece that was huge scrolls of tissue paper hanging from the ceiling that had been cut with an xacto knife to make designs that I thought Steph would have really liked. Really beautiful. I also tried out this beanbag suit-chair. There's a flap for your arms and head to go through that attaches you to the rest of the beanbag that's hanging behind you. Then you sit down and you can lay back. It's a really strange chair because you can't get into it by yourself, but once you put it on, it's really comfortable.

A surprising amount of the exhibits were interactive. Well..I guess it isn't that surprising since it is about 'space', but they were interactive in ways I didn't expect. My absolute favorite part of the entire exhibit was the Disco Phonebooth. From the outside, it looks like an empty booth with a disco ball hanging from the top and headphones to put on. If someone goes in, you can see them in their mini disco. The catch is that the person inside can't see outside. When I went in, it was all me. The inside of the booth is covered with mirrors, so it really feels like a private disco booth, and makes you want to dance. The thing is that if you dance, everyone outside can see you. Really fun and funny.

There was jewelry, photographs, Ninagawa Mika's room, movies, lighting devices... I can't really go through it all, but I must say, the most impressive thing was the 4 story tall square balloon. Yup, square balloon. It was floating in the middle of the building. It's so confusing because 1) it's gigantic, 2) it's just floating there, 3) it's square, 4) it's made out of metal, 5) it distorts your image in the reflection, 6) what the heck?!?!?!

It's hands down the best museum exhibit I've seen in my life. It makes me really excited to go to the Mori Art Museum in Roppongi because it has a similar take on mixing genres and media. They have a sort of partnership where if you go see one and show your ticket, you get a discount at the other. The exhibit is called Roppongi Crossing: Future Beats in Contemporary Art. I missed the Future Beats in Music and Moving Images event where Shinichi Osawa DJed and I also missed this interactive sculpture/music workshop with Ogai Takeharu. (Ryuichi Sakamoto composed the music for it. Augh.) Booo. Anyway, I'm still looking forward to it.

Iloveart.

Mobile:カボチャ

かぼちゃパールドリンク！美味しい！
Pumpkin pearl drink! Yum!

Yesterday I went to Harajuku with Britten so she could look for nice clothes and I could buy a new jacket. (Yes!) After that, we went to Denny's! (I had steak. I forgot how much I miss eating big pieces of meat. XD)

Mobile: クリスマスタイム

日本でのクリスマスタイム！
Christmastime in Japan

江戸東京博物館

I went to the Edo Tokyo Museum today!


I was supposed to go with Melissa, but she accidentally overslept, so I ended up just looking around by myself. It's a huge museum. I wish I was there with someone so we could take pictures of using some of the hands-on things they had there. (There were rooms you could go in, bikes and other vehicles you could sit in, that kind of thing.) It's a very thorough museum. It goes from the beginnings of Edo, covers all aspects of life (economy, international communication, arts, etc.) and goes up until the Tokyo Olympics.


It took me 2 hours to get through it, though near the end I wasn't looking at everything. I wish I had gone before my Japanese Civilization midterm. It might have helped me remember stuff. Overall though, it was nice to look at all the stuff.


I didn't go see the special exhibit since the museum was closing. I think it was something about pottery, but I'm not sure since the title was in kanji that I couldn't read. I was a little disappointed that I didn't wait until December because they'll be having a special exhibit on Hokusai. Though it's only 440 yen or so to get in, I could always go back. =)

ただいま！

I'm back!

...and with a brand new MacBook! (Though I would have much rather just kept my old one. I was way more used to it.) Anyway, let's recap what's been going on...

On the 21st, I went to Sunshine City in Higashi-Ikebukuro for the first time. It's basically just a ton of shopping, but I did find a really good grocery specialty store. They have those truffles they sell at Trader Joe's and a bunch of interesting imported foods. I also found a Lupicia! Lupicia is my favorite tea company. They have a ton of stores in Japan, but only one in the U.S., in San Francisco. So after getting some Sirocco tea, nougat, and dried veggies, I was quite pleased. =)

Since my computer was broken, I spent a lot of time (finally) doing some non-school related reading. I finished "What is the What" by Dave Eggers. Highly recommended. I couldn't put it down after I got back into it. I also read "Out" by Natsuo Kirino (in 2 days!). That is one of the most disturbing books I've probably ever read, with the exception of a few scenes in Haruki Murakami's "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles" and a story called "Red Hair" by another Japanese author. I don't know what it is about Japanese authors. They write a lot of perverse stuff. Anyway, I'm looking to start "Survivor" by Chuck Palahniuk. After that, I'm out of English books.


The 25th was a fun day. Hank came in from Kyoto, so I met up with him and Vinodh in Harajuku where we did a bunch of shopping (Above: Harajuku Uniqlo UT Store) and ended out the evening with an hour of karaoke. That, however, was not the end of the night. So-ky and Busby were throwing a Thanksgiving dinner since we all missed it. So I bought a pudding-cake-fruit-dessert and made my way back to good ol' Kameido. Anjee had also come in from Kyoto, so it was nice to see her. I must say, for a bunch of exchange students, we put together a pretty good dinner. Salad, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie (that was amazing, none of us expected pumpkin pie), chicken, stir fried veggies, mac and cheese, Japanese fried chicken, apples, mini-cheesecakes, fruit-pudding-cake-desert, and two other kinds of tarts. (Basically, every girl brought or made a dessert. haha.) Are you impressed? I was impressed.


Besides that, I've been running back and forth from here to Ginza to get my new computer. Ginza is kind of like New York. The department store next to the Apple Store was basically made into a big Louis Vuitton box, and it has the nicest Dotour Cafe I've seen yet. (Dotour Cafe's are everywhere.) Anyway, the Apple Store. It was crazy that they had so many bilingual people. According to one employee, about 1/3 of the people that work there are bilingual. (It really threw me off when the one white employee came up to me and was like, "keigo keigo keigo".) I was thinking that if I had been more into computers, it would have been kind of fun to work in that store. There's these two automatic glass elevators that just look neat.


As far as school goes, I'm mid-midterms. And I got an 82 on my Japanese midterm. Boo. I'm no good at particles and remembering verb tenses in grammar patterns.

Mobile: 晩ご飯

Dinner

自分で作ったカレー！
Curry I made myself!

Mobile: イライラ

3ヶ月半。
日本に住んでることにかかわらず、日常生活はまだ複雑だよ。留学生の友達と話したのは外国人のことばかりだ。
日系人なので私の場合は普通の外国人と違う。外国人はいろいろないい特徴があって、日本人との付き合いはもっと簡単だと思う。(例えば、格好が良い。）私には…
外国人点：１
それは？ 日本語が話せないこと。
とにかく、みんな楽しいThanksgivingを…！

Irritated

Three and a half months.
Despite living in Japan, everyday life is still confusing. The only thing my exchange student friends and I talk about is being foreigners. Since I"m Japanese-American my situation is different from a regular foreigner. There are a lot of good points to being a foreigner and I think it's easier to just go out with Japanese people. (For example, they look 'cool.') As for me...
Foreigner Points: 1
What is it? Not being able to speak Japanese.
Anyway, everyone have a fun Thanksgiving!

Mobile: アップルブルース

昨日、iBookを壊れてしまった。今日、銀座のGenius Barに行った。5日間ぐらいコンピューターがないけど無料で直すって。音楽や写真などなくなるので少しカナシイ。

直したまで、携帯電話のメールアドレスで連絡してね！

Apple Blues

Yesterday, I broke my iBook. Today, I went to the Genius Bar in Ginza. I won't have a computer for about 5 days, but they said they could fix it for free. I'll lose things like my music and pictures, so that's kinda sad. Until they fix it, contact me on my cell phone email!

"エビとのコラボ！"

...ってか、旅愛のみ会！

("Collaboration with shrimp!"...or, travel club drinking party!)

So this week, my Japanese midterm owned me. Really, I didn't know we'd have so many questions to answer on the reading, so I didn't divide my time up well...anyway, we'll see how that goes. A lot of people didn't finish.

The good news, as stated before, today was my first nomikai with travel club. I've now discovered that the later it is and the more tired I am, the less Japanese I'm able to understand and use. I think I only understood like..half the conversation. But despite that, the food (at Salsa Cabana) was good and it was fun to mostly listen. Everyone is really nice, even if I can't talk to them that well. It's weird to be the only who doesn't understand everything that's going on, but it's a comfortable atmosphere. Rina tells me that after a while, you get to know people and it becomes like a family. =D And the shrimp thing? That was, I think, my favorite thing anyone said all night. Keisuke (I'm trying really hard with names, it's embarassing I can't remember them all.) got this chocolate/ice cream crepe thing on his shrimp and said that. XD Japanese people also do not know how to drink tequila. The salt and the limes and oh, the confusion. Hahaha. It was all fun though. Whoo.

It's gotten really cold all of a sudden. Had to bust out my biggest jacket. I really think I need to go shopping for long sleeves and coats/sweaters/jackets. I was not expecting it to switch so suddenly.

Mobile: 犬

Dog!

カラオケの外で見た犬です！

The dog we saw outside karaoke!

soundsreal

Nothing too exciting has been going on lately. I bought new headphones since my old iPod ones broke. No more in-ear headphones for me. I ended up with some (affordable) audio-technica ones. My old ones must have been really messed up, because everything I listen to now sounds so much better. (Some stuff I've never listened to except on my laptop speakers or with those bad headphones, so I'm sort of amazed.) I also have another blog just for fun. Mostly it's just to practice Japanese and it's probably full of mistakes. XD It's about music stuff, but feel free to check it out.

新ブログは音楽中心です。
日本語で書こうと思って、作りました！
別に日本に留学する一年間に関しないけど是非読んで下さい！
間違いだらけですけどよろしく。

LOTTE BLACK

LOTTE BLACK = crackchocolate.

I've been having a pretty awesome week. Let me count the ways:

1. Vietnam is a GO!
2. I just got paid!
3. I owned my literature essay in the face (relatively, for not doing all the reading)
4. I discovered some great dark chocolate.
5. Yuhki is coming to Tokyo this weekend!

So about that crackchocolate. That's my new name for LOTTE BLACK since I was doing fine when I got home. I was tired. Then I drank some juice, ate an apple, and ate some chocolate. After the choclate I just became really hyper. Ask Yuhki. He had to put up with my insane instant messages. I'm not one hundered percent sure it's the chocolate that's got me all crazy, but this mood is just strange. Whee~ (I promise I didn't ingest anything mind altering or illegal. I promise.)

Ilove/hateJapan.

ベトナム大使館、代々木八幡宮、明治神宮

Today I went on a hunt to find the Embassy of Vietnam. Definitely not as easy as I thought it would be. It's in a sort of apartment/resiential area, so I kept thinking I was in the wrong place. Anyway, I was able to get my visa, good for one month of tourism. XD I also booked my flights, so I'll be leaving on December 23rd, leaving on December 30th, and arriving back in Tokyo on December 31st. I had a little bit of a panic attack when I found out that the flight to VN I was going to book was filled after I'd already booked the domestic flight from Ho Chi Minh City to Da Nang, but I was able to find an even better set of tickets, so it worked out well. =)


Besides that whole bit of organizing and arranging, I stopped at the Yoyogi-hachiman shrine that was on the way to the embassy. (See above.) It was really small, but people really go to it since I saw about 5 people there. On the way back to Heiwadai, I also stopped at Meiji Jingu, which I'd been overlooking on all my trips to Harajuku.


Meiji Jingu has one of the biggest (if not the biggest) wooden gate in Japan. There were also a bunch of sake barrels stacked up like a wall next to the path leading to the shrine. I'm not exactly sure what it was there for, but it looked cool. XD I took a picture of the sign..maybe one of these days I can figure out the purpose of it. One of my favorite things at Meiji Jingu is the tree where everyone places the votives they've written their wishes on. There are sooo many of them in so many different languages. (I saw Japanese, English, Korean, Chinese, French, German, I think it was Arabic...and a bunch that I couldn't really identify.) It's kind of cool to see so many wishes and hopes all in one place.


I didn't write one myself. Maybe I'll go back one day and do one. I was going to, but I didn't know what I wanted to write. There were some families taking their 7, 5, and 3 year olds to temple for the Japanese 七五三 (7,5,3) thing. It was really cute to see them all dressed up and trying not to step on the middle of the gate when they walked in. (You're suppposed to step over it, not on it.) That's all for now!

not quite homesick

I was talking to another girl who lives in my apartment and I realized that living here doesn't really feel like real life. It's definitely not as much work as before. I don't have a real job like I did at the Testing Center, and the classes aren't that great either. I mean, the teachers definitely know what they're talking about, but two of my teachers [who teach in English] are really bad at speaking. Besides that, I wrote a crappy essay on some readings I barely did and got a 'B'. It's like school and work got a whole lot easier and being social got a whole lot harder. Sounds dumb right? But when you're sitting at a club meeting where you're the only non-native Japanese speaker trying to understand the next event that's going on, it kind of takes you back to when you were little and you wanted to hang out with the big kids even though you didn't know what they were talking about. Ah, but I try. I try.

All that stuff aside, it is a lot of fun. There's no shortage of places to go, things to see, or things to try. Sometimes I feel like I'm having too much fun and not being serious enough about my studies or spending too much money or whatever else. I've just never had so much free time before. It's almost like being homesick, but I think it's actually just twisting up my lifestyle. Oh, Japan. What am I going to do?

ソフィア際!

Sophia Festival!

I met Nobuko at school today so we could to go the school festival together. There were a lot of people there, so it was kind of crazy, but a lot of fun. I had some ジャージャー麺 (jaa jaa men, Chinese noodles) and some Jijimi (Korean pancake). I saw Eun-jeong and So-hee at the Jijimi booth since they're both in the Korean Exchange Student Club. The jijimi flipping was kind of impressive. Haha. Anyway, after that, I went to Bldg. 9 to find Tom since he said he was going to be dressed up like a schoolgirl all day. When I got to the room it said: コスプレ＆ゲイBar (Cosplay & Gay Bar). Then Nobuko and I looked in and there were a bunch of guys (basketball players, hahaha) dressed as girls, sitting at little makeshift cafe-like tables talking to people who paid for little snacks. Hahahahaha. It was like one of those things you see on those Japanese dramas. Some of them were really pretty too! And the ones with make up actually had good makeup. It was sorta scary in a funny way.


After that, we went to the stage to watch G-Splash, Sophia's best dance team. They were amazing~! If you look them up on Youtube, they're there. We also ran into Wendy and Melissa, so we watched the Mr. Sophia Contest together. Wendy was rooting for contestant four, who was on the basketball team. (Five contestants total, one of them was even a foreigner.) They did questions and answers, self-promotion, and marriage proposals. (I know, it sounds absolutely ridiculous, but it was fun to watch.) We were all rooting for number four, but number three had the best proposal. He picked Kobukuro's "永遠にともに" for background music. It was something along the lines of, "We've had a lot of good times and hard times, haven't we? Shouldn't we end this kind of relationship? [insert audience confusion and "へぇー？"] Marry me.” [insert audience understanding and "あぁー！"] Anyway, Wendy took all of our voting papers and voted for number four. XD

Before they announced the winner, JONTE performed. He's another Korean singer crossing over into the Japanese market, so I thought I wouldn't like him, but daaang, he can really sing. (And he actually isn't crossing over, I just found out, he's a 在日韓国人-- Korean person born in Japan.) He sang his first single, "ゆれる." Afterwards, as expected, number four walked away named Mr. Sophia 2007. Hahahaha.

I went to Starbucks with Wendy and Nobuko after that, but Wendy had to go home. The rest of the night was spent at karaoke with Nobuko, where we discovered that the only songs we can both sing are Hamasaki Ayumi songs since we have different taste in English and Japanese music. XD What a fun day. =D

Tokyo Disneyland

I decided I still wanted to go to Disneyland, especially since we have W-F off because of the Sophia Festival. So a few friends and I decided to go. Thus...


I just got back from Tokyo Disneyland! It was so much fun! I went with Hannah, Monique, Melissa, and Nobuko. We met at the park at 8:30. The main street and castle look quite different, but it's actually a lot less stressful and crazy than the Anaheim one.


We started out with Pirates of the Carribean, which is very similar to the American one. (Voice overs and recordings in Japanese are kind of hilarious. XD) After that, Melissa explained that one of the attractions in Disneyland and DisneySea are the popcorn flavors, which are made available on different dates in certain lands. I decided I wanted to try some of them and got curry flavored popcorn in Westernland (American equivalent = Frontierland). We followed that up with the Jungle Cruise. Japanese skippers are actually quite energetic, which was not what I was expecting. It's more of a cheezy, over the top funny than a sarcastic, monotone funny. We finished up Westernland with Big Thunder Mountain.


Next was Fantasyland, where we went on the Haunted Mansion, which was decked out with Nightmare Before Christmas. It's a little less impressive than the American one, though the mansion itself looks pretty cool. Then we went on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (白雪姫と七人のこびと), which was also about the same. I tried some of Hannah and Nobuko's Chocolate flavored popcorn and also bougt the Honey flavor popcorn, which was absolutely delicious. (Really, the best popcorn I've ever had.)

After eating lunch, we went on AstroBlasters and went on to Space Mountain, which for some reason doesn't have any music. It was a little more eerie that way. Then we watched the Christmas Parade. (Yeah, Christmas already.) There was Soda flavored popcorn here, but it smelled funny so we passed it up. Instead, we had honey-lemon churros, which were yummy. (I think I have a thing for honey now.)


For dinner, Melissa and I went to The Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall (the others opted for something a little less pricey). We had to eat there, the atmosphere was just too amazing. It was made to look like a mix between the flower garden and the rose garden in Alice in Wonderland. There are playing card statues around, and you have to walk through the doorknob's mouth to enter the restaurant. There are big flower lights, and almost all the windows are stained glass, most of them with hearts on them. Very cool. =) (The chicken was delicious too.) I wish they had that in Anaheim. After that, Melissa and I went to Pooh's Honey Hunt.


Oh, Pooh's Honey Hunt. It's my absolute favorite Disney ride, ever. Basically, you walk into a gigantic Pooh storybook and get into a honey pot. Then you're off into the story, seeing scenes of all Pooh's adventures. The coolest thing about it is that even though you're in a huge room and can see the other honey pots, you have absolutely no idea which way you're going or where you're going to turn because there is no track. There's no track! (Jerry told me it's done by GPS.) There's also animation added in the backgrtounds for movement, and some cool effects with mirrors and puffs of wind. You also get to bounce with Tigger, which had me and Melissa laughing our heads off. Yes, basically the best Disney ride.

We headed to the Tea Party after that, where the lady said, "お誕生日じゃない日おめでとう！" ("Happy Unbirthday!") I forgot how dizzy those cups make me. The Dream Lights parade started while we were on it, but we were able to get off and rush to watch the majority of it. The light parade was really pretty. It had a few newer things like Monsters Inc. and Finding Nemo that looked really good. We met back with everyone else, then Nobuko and I went on the Castle Carosel. We finished by watching the fireworks. (They were a lot less than stellar if you compare them to the 50th Anniversary ones in the U.S.) Then we did some shopping on Main Street. (Actually, in between rides, we went shopping, so we hit most of the stores in the vicinity we were in. Haha.) I restrained myself from buying any Disney headgear. It was so hard, especially since so many people were wearing them, and they were really warm. (Mickey earmuffs or hats, character ear and hat clips, headbands, etc.)


Overall, definitely a fun trip. =D Next on the hit list? DisneySea! Heehee.

Mobile:Disney Station

舞浜に到着して、びっくりした。東京ディズニーランドの電車だよ！
After arriving at Maihama, I was surprised. There's a Tokyo Disneyland Train!

CANCELLED!

Recently, it seems like everything is being cancelled. First, the 旅愛好会 (Travel Club) trip to Disneyland on Halloween was cancelled because there weren't enough people. Then, my Korean Art class was cancelled for unknown reasons. (It just said 'Class Cancelled' on the board.) After that, I went to work and found out that they were going to cancel the 7:30 - 8:30 class I teach, so now I only work one hour a week. And, as a continuation from Thursday, the trip to Ueno Zoo was cancelled because it's raining really badly. And the rain, of course, has led to my friend's party being cancelled. He just moved into a new apartment and was planning a party for tonight, but now no one is going because of the rain. Ah, cancelling things sucks.

I recieved a package from my grandma today though. =D おばあちゃん！本当にありがとう！♡

Sorry my updates have not been as interesting or photo-filled as usual. I'm kind of in a rut of having to figure out school and all of that. Hopefully things get better (and less rainy!)

Mobile: ヘアカット

Haircut

かわいくない？どう思う？
Isn't it cute? Whatcha think?

Mobile: 料理

Cooking

初めての焼うどん！
My first yakiudon!

Ebisu

Nothing too exciting has bee going on. I went to Ebisu for the second time. (The first time was to go to the LIQUIDROOM. haha.) Tonight, I had Singaporean food for the first time with Vinodh, Keith, Monique, Hannah, and a bunch of other people. For a lot of us, it was a new experience. Singaporean food is yummy! =D Curry, bread, rice, chicken, noodles. Really good. It was a really international crowd too. There were 2 girls from Korea, a bunch of Americans, a guy from Singapore, a Japanese girl who studied abroad in Germany. It was all pretty fun. After that we went to an izakaya (drinking place) to talk and drink. Sohee and I just made the last train back home. Even though doing this sort of thing gets expensive, I think it's worth it to meet all the interesting people. =)


I miss people from home a lot recently. Skype is now my new best friend.

Harajuku again...

So I spent a few hours in Harajuku again today. My objective was to visit the Bape Cafe?! (I'm rather proud that I found it by looking it up online and drawing myself a map. =D ) I found Bape Cuts and A Bathing Ape Kids, too. The cafe's atmosphere is kind of dark because of the navy blue walls, but its also full of Kaws art. (like the signature XX eyes and Kimpsons pictures.) It's surprisingly cheap to eat there. I had Red Shrimp Curry and iced coffee for 1000 yen, so a little less than 10 bucks. It's very cute. There are star shaped ice cubes and the ape insignia on everything, including cups, plates, oshibori (wet towel), napkins, and coasters. I recommend visiting it if you're into that kind of design stuff. It was weird the way they seated people. Everyone who was alone was at one big, round table instead of at little individual ones. It was kind of cool.


I also had to buy a new planner because I discovered that the day of the week were labeled incorrectly on my old one. I went to Kiddyland to pick up a Miffy one. =D Then I finished out the day by buying a few pairs of fun socks from Gap and a pair of boots (There's a boot boom this season.) from ABC Mart. I definitely like Harajuku, but this could get expensive. o.O

Mobile: Bape Cafe?!

カレーエープ！
Curry Ape!

Yogurt Soju

Okay, so I have to preface this with: I AM NOT AN ALCOHOLIC. (Since I know a few people who will suggest that I'm turning into one.) Anyway, I had a bottle of soju from a bad day that I didn't know what to do with, so I found a recipe for yogurt soju. It's actually really good. I'd drink it without the soju, too.

1 shot soju
fill glass 2/3 full with yogurt drink
top with Sprite


Yum!!

Besides that, I'm just communicating with Thinh to see if a trip to Vietnam over winter break is in the cards. I really want to go!

料理ブーム

Recently, I've been into cooking things. I'm not a very good cook, so nothing I make is spectacular, but hopefully I'll get better.


Seafood okayu. The grocery store I go to doesn't have very much stuff, but there was a seafood mix...


Beef & onion stir fry. Salad. I could only buy onions in bags of three, so I had to figure out what to do with them.

What else can I make with only one burner?

update

Wow, it's been a while. Since last time, I've mainly just been going to school and doing normal everyday things. I started my conversation partner/tutoring job at the Nerima culture center on Thursday. I only have to work with 6 people, 3 at a time, so it's really easy. The only bummer is that I leave my apartment at 8AM and don't get home until around 9:30PM, so it's a long day.

Classes are going fine, and having Wednesdays off is definiately nice, I just wish the classes were more interesting. Right now, I'm looking into joining the travel club and/or the cinema club, depending on how they fit in my schedule and all of that.

Yesterday, I went to Shibuya and met up with Nobuko. We went shopping at Shibuya109, which is a gigantic mall. Only bought one thing, but it was fun to look at all the ridiculous stuff they had there. Then we went to a movie theatre and watched "The Kingdom". Movies in Japan are really expensive, about $15 each. It was a good movie though, makes you think. It is kind of depressing though.

Today will be spent cleaning and studying. Thanks to Yuhki, I have this new addiction to Hershey's ice cream bars. I'll have to get outta here and go find something else to eat. Japanese test tomorrow, wish me luck!

Weekend in Tochigi!

This weekend was awesome!

On Friday, I got a package from my mom that had a bunch of stuff I needed, so I was excited. Then I left for Tochigi to see Yuhki. The train ride took about three hours long, but it was well worth it. When I got there, we went to a Korean BBQ restaurant that one of Yuhki's students' parents own. Afterwards, we went back to his apartment and played Wii. (Yuhki is king of video games.)


Russell arrived from Kyushu on Saturday morning, with a severe lack of sleep. It was kind of crazy to see him since I haven't seen him since he graduated a year or two ago. He brought me a Kabosu (citrus fruit his town is famous for) Hello Kitty strap. First, Yuhki took us on a walk around Ootahara, his town. There were a few people fishing in the rivers for ayu fish. We also visited a smaller temple that Yuhki said was haunted and 大雄時 (Sorry, I forgot how to read this temple's name correctly), which had a bunch of statues...and mosquitoes. It's 600 years old, so that's pretty crazy. The area is well known for soba, so we stopped at a little place to pick up omiyage. At one point while we were at the temple, Yuhki told us that his town was also known because the poet, Basho, spent one of his days walking through it and said it was very pretty (which is true).

Next, we went for tonkatsu at a little restaurant. It was delicious. It was the first tonkatsu I've had since coming to Japan, which is good because it was yummy, but bad because now I'm going to compare everything to it. =P Then we went to a little gathering at the eki-mae (sort of like where people gather...it looked like a swap meet) for gelato. There were craaazy flavors. The town is also known for their togarashi (red peppers) so there was togarashi flavored gelato, as well as maccha (bitter green tea), kurogoma (black sesame), nashi (asian pear) sorbet, and hakubijin negi (a type of green onion). I didn't get to try all of them, but based on all the flavors we collectively tried, we decided that all of the flavors must be good. =D


Afterwards, Yuhki drove us to Nikko. On our way there, we went up Irohazaka, which is an extremely curvy road. There's a curve for every letter in the hiragana alphabet (hence the name of the road). For anyone out there who likes Initial D, one of the roads in the game is based on that road. You can see skid marks from drifting on the way down. We stopped in the middle and took pictures of the greenery. The temple at Nikko was already closed since we got there around 4:30, but we did see this great waterfall (that's supposedly haunted). Then we stopped in a shop to try yuba (the film from making tofu) and rice crackers that are made in that area, which were also delicious. We finished out the night by eating at a place called Kite, talking, and playing video games.


Today, we woke up late. We meant to go to Nikko again to see the temple, but we were too sleepy. So we started out the day with lunch, where we ran into Yuhki's taiko teacher and his son. The food there was amazing, too. (Yuhki's town, despite being out in the country is full of so much good food!!!) We ordered yakiudon, nabeyaki udon, and soup yakisoba. Yuhki's sensei treated us to basashi (horse sashimi), which I'm still not that fond of, but this one was way better than the first one I had since it had ginger and katsuobushi (bonito flakes). We went back to the gelato place (where I discovered the chestnut glace flavor XD) Then we hit Uniqlo really quick and then I got ready to go. Russell is staying until tomorrow (since it's a holiday, but I still have school) On my way back home, I wasn't paying attention and missed my stop and had to ride the line really far, so I got back late, but it turned out alright.


After talking with Yuhki and Russel, eating so much good food, being out in nature (where you can actually breathe and look up and see stars), and actually living in the same room with people again I feel a lot more relaxed. The trip kind of made me want to live further away from the city, though I think it'd be even harder to make friends my age there, there are so many other good things about it. It's a real side of Japan I think a lot of people overlook, but I want to go back. =D

Mobile:なし

Asian pears...

栃木県の大きななし！

Tochigi's big Asian pears!

Harajuku, Shinjuku, Tochigi!!!

Whoo. Talk about a tiring...half a week. My schedule at Jouchi (Sophia/上智) is pretty much figured out now. I don't have 2nd period at all and I always finish by 4th, so it isn't too bad, except that I hate having to stand all the time on the subway, but that can't be helped. I still haven't decided on a club to join, so I'll have to look into that more, but I don't want it to be one of the ones that takes over my life. (For example, G-Splash, the amazing dance group, practices everyday for 2 hours.) I haven't really made any native friends yet, a lot of exchange students though...we'll see how this goes. I'm told that the key is to join a club...which I haven't. You know the loser-y kids who don't know where to go or what to do at lunch? I'm trying not to be one of those. T.T

Anyway, Wednesdays are wonderful. I don't have class, so I decided to go to Harajuku to check out the shopping. (I prefer shopping on my own, or with a few select people.) I found omiyage for Jerry, which was fun. It was nice to be there on a weekday because there were waaaay less people than on the weekends. I found the Undefeated, KSwiss, and Stussy stores. They look like the kind you'd find on honeyee.com or hypebeast. I looked way to country bumpkin/female/poor to go in though. There was a guy dressed like Verbal (Japanese rapper) sitting outside and he kinda intimidated me away. I did see this cool mural though. Made me think of Wooster Collective. Another cool find was the Uniqlo UT store, where they sell collaboration/artist designed t-shirts in tubes. I got another skull shirt (remember the Jessica Michibata one?) designed by a girl named Seri. The shirts are quite reasonable. I found so many things I want, and so many things I've been looking for, but they're all just too expensive. Even the small stores that look cheap are expensive. =( I finally found lotion for cheap at the Body Shop, which was good because my heels hate me right now for not taking care of them. Moving on...


I got a call from the lady I contacted before about the tutoring/teaching job in Nerima that's for 2 hours a week on Thursdays, and I'll be starting next week. I hope it goes well. The first hour is beginners and the 2nd is advanced, but I'm not sure what that means. Wish me luck! It's not a lot, but any income is better than none...now I have all these things to look forward to getting in Harajuku. Hehehe.

Because I was unsucessful in my search for some kind of hoodie/sweater/jacket to wear since it's getting a little cooler but not freezing, I went to Shinjuku after school today. (I don't think I'll be doing that again. It tired me out, I had to do homework and laundry, and now I have vocabulary to memorize.) I got a black hoodie at Muji. It's kind of like a Japanese-style Gap, but with home goods and other random things.

But the highlight for this first week in school is that I made plans to go visit Yuhki in Tochigi!!! It's about three hours away by train and a tiny bit pricey for the weekend, but I really wanted to get out of the city and Russell (a guy who graduated from UCI a year ago) is visiting too since he's on JET. According to Yuhki, it will be good, cheap food and nature! I'll be glad to see some real nature. I'll be close to Nikko, but I don't know if I'll get around to seeing it this time, it depends. I'm leaving at 5PM tomorrow and coming back sometime on Sunday. Ahhh, I'm excited!

上智大学！

Sophia University!

Wow, it's been two days. Our schedules haven't been decided yet. (We're in a sort of 'shopping period' and we have to register by the 9th.) I'm planning on taking Japanese 4, Survey of Korean Art 2, Survey of Japanese Literature 1, and Development of Japanese Civilization. None of them are particularly riveting, but interesting enough. Literature is winning so far. Each class is an hour and a half long.

As far as the people at Sophia, I'm sad to say I haven't really met any native speakers yet. (It's a lot stranger to approach them than I thought.) It's hard to tell whether to speak to them in Japanese or English because you can't really tell what anyone can speak by looking at them. Then you have other random languages that they can speak too. It's so crazy. On top of that, honestly, all the girls here are ridiculously cute. I hear a lot of girls from Sophia are models or become reporter people on tv. There aren't very many guys here, but even the guys are stylish. It's the strangest feeling to want to dress up to go to school. (It sounds weird, but you'd feel the same.)

On another note, Sophia doesn't have a taiko group. =(
I don't know what happened because I guess they used to, but I went to student affairs and they said there wasn't one. I was so sad when I found out. I don't know what I'm going to do. I need to decide on some other club to join...what to do what to do?

School has been making me really tired, probably because I haven't been sleeping enough, but I don't have any classes tomorrow, so that'll be nice. I also got a package from Cheryl that I was ecstatic about because I was so tired and unhappy from school. It was full of postcards, and chocolates, and stories about her trip abroad. =) She's my favorite!

I am also quite excited since I now have internet capabilities in my room...unfortunately, I have not yet figured out how to hook it all up because NTT Communications is stupid and sent me a billion papers and two cd roms, none of which I need. (From what I've been told I don't need them, anyway.) But on that note, expect direct updates from my little apartment in Heiwadai.

Mobile:美味しい！

Yummy!

なんか、チョコレートを食べたい〜！

I feel like eating chocolate!

2 months

I've hit the two month mark. That's so crazy. Just a few bits of news for you:

1. I made it into Japanese 4 at Sophia University.
2. I got the Freeman-ASIA Scholarship.
3. I finally have proper bedding for my bed.
4. I'm waiting for my rice cooker to arrive.
5. I'm also waiting for my internet to be installed.
6. School starts on October 1st.

Here's my bedding...I was quite excited.

見回そう、３６０度！

So last night was pretty crazy. Tom, Matt, Jae, and I were going to meet up in a bar in Ginza, but it turned out that John's brother was in Tokyo and they were going to splurge at the Tokyo Hilton, so we ended up going to dinner with them. It was at a place called Musashino and it had to be the most expensive dinner I've ever eaten. The sirloin was delicious and the sake was actually good, which is saying a lot since I generally don't like sake.


Afterwards we stopped in a lounge/bar type place downstairs. (It had the whole old man, cigars, and whiskey feel.) I had this toxic looking cocktail called a 'passion fantasy' that was really good. Hahaha. Since the drinks were expensive, while we were drinking them we were like, "I just drank 100 yen, oh there goes another 50 yen." I met a guy named Kohei, who's an underground rapper and is very well connected to that whole scene. (The picture is of John and Kohei, John is trying to look cook, Kohei is doing 'kamehameha!')


At karaoke, you could tell Kohei was a rapper, especially on "見回そう” (Mimawasou) by キングギドラ (King Giddra). Really legit. We spent the rest of the night/morning at karaoke/nomihoudai. I found out that Kelly can really sing. That had to be the most second hand smoke I've ever had in my life, but all in all, it was a lot of fun. (Above: everyone having a lot of fun. ^_^)

雷門

Today, I went to Asakusa to visit Kaminari-mon, which is basically this huge gate and lantern with a temple. In between the gate and the temple, there are stores lined all along the path. A lot of it is tourist oriented, but it looks like there's also a lot of good snack foods. There were a lot of people, so it was kinda crazy, but it was nice to actually see a temple in Tokyo. So I did the whole fan yourself with smoke, go in, bow, clap, and throw money. Some people throw that money from really far. o.O The underside of the big lantern was really pretty, but it was hard to get a picture of since I couldn't see where I was shooting and there were so many people trying to take pictures.


After I looked around at the temple, I proceeded to look at the food stands set up. My favorite thing was the little candy stick things. (Posted below) The outside was basically chewy and sticky like botan rice candy and the inside had a really juicy tangerine slice that I made a mess out of. Apparently it's for little kids, but I like it anyway. I also had　大だこ焼, which is just big takoyaki. There were six in the container and I could only eat 4. It was good, but honestly the dough/octopus ratio was not good. Too much dough. Stick to the normal sized ones. When I was walking back, I bought konpeito (basically colorful, cute sugar candy) from one of the shops. I couldn't help it; they're really cute and I have a sweet tooth.


I was kind of bummed that it's cloudy becaue the pictures don't look as nice, but I like that it's a bit cooler. =)

More pictures: www.flickr.com/photos/13561081@N04/

Mobile:甘い！

Sweet!

ミカンが入ってるキャンディー！
(Candy with tangerine in it!)

COCKROACH!

I found a cockroach in my room!!! I freaked out soooo much. I threw something at it and it crawled, I screamed, and emailed Tom to see if he was willing to kill it, but he was at a club. So I decided to go and find someone in the lounge. Luckily, Seth was awake, complaining about the noise and came to save the day. (Since I seriously couldn't sleep in a room with a bug that big.) I'm so grateful to Seth. (Not the one from JLI, this Seth is the first person I met at Azalea.) He chased it around my room and eventually killed it, put it in a bag, and took it to the trash for me. He's really nice, especially since he had to be up early and it's about 3am in the morning. Seth is my absolute favorite person right now.

That's my interesting story for the day. I also went to Shinjuku to meet Vinodh, Nobuko, Makoto, Keith, and a couple other people to drink and sing karaoke, but the cockroach story definitely wins. I was going to go to sleep, but I have to stay up a little more to calm my nerves. Huuu~

waaaaa!

So it's been a pretty crazy few days just getting used to Heiwadai and not being around everyone in Kameido anymore. After moving in, I unpacked and rested. I was really irritated by one of the people I had to move with, so I was in a bad mood. After e-mailing a few other people, we discovered that a lot of us were unhappy. So on Saturday night, I met up with Vinodh in Kameido. We went to the oden hut that pops up outside of Kameido sometimes. It was pretty yummy, plus the guy working there gave me a discount for being pretty. Hahaha, there's a first. We met up in Anjee's room where Michael was staying since he had a realy bad host family. A little while later Jae called and said he was coming over with So-ky, who also disliked his new dorm. So an hour or so later, viola! mini D class reunion.


Not everything turned out great that night since some people wanted to drink and some people didn't and there were only 2 rooms for 5 extra guests. It was actually not a good way to end terms with everyone since people were going off to Kyoto, but we got it all settled, and I think we're all okay.

Sunday was spent going to the Nerima-ku office to switch my alien registration card and insurance. Then I went to Shinjuku where I proceeded to buy a new shower curtain and gawk at how expensive bedding is. (I have yet to get sheets and a comforter.) Afterwards, I went to Nakanosakaue to see off Kazue, along with a bunch of other people from JLI. So tiring, but fun. =)

Today was the orientation and placement for Sophia University. I feel like I did well enough and that whatever I get will actually reflect my abilities, but I'm scared that I'll get put in a beginner class or something. We'll see. It was a lot of technical stuff, so there isn't that much to write, but I did get my ID card, which looks cool and will allow me to get a commuter pass starting October 1st. I need cheaper transportation. Right now, its ridiculous!!!


In scary news, the word on the street is that someone committed suicide in Bldg. 1 of Weekly Mansion Kameido. (We were in Bldg. 2) I don't really know what's going on with that, but it's pretty creepy. Anyway, I'll still miss it there, it was nice. (This is the view from a bridge in the morning. Ah, I'll miss those mornings!)